Lil Quacks Refuge.

07/10/2025

Hey wildling fam!

Here is our dragon update!

It is happily moving around in its egg, we can not wait to see what this ends up being!

Remember team work makes the dream work!

07/10/2025

*edit has been found*

Hey wildling fam!

We have been trying to find/catch this bunny and can not find them, anyone see him/her please dont just post photos please catch it.

We keep missing it, and then another post pops up about it, but, by the time we get there its gone again

If you can not catch it, keep eyes on where it goes. Dont leave it, stay with it and mesg us immediately so we can get it.

We suspect it is just getting out then going back home, but, with dogs and other predators in the area it is simply not safe to be running around like this and owners need to be made aware.

As always team work makes the dream work!

06/10/2025

Hey wildling fam!

Today is a big day for us, this is where our ducks dreams are about to come true! We are building a duck area here with a pond, thanks to a generous donation of a large triangle bath, and from our beautiful Jess GMA a $50 Bunnings voucher!

Watch this space!

We appreciate all the donations we get and can use them on some amazing projects around here!

Thankyou to all of you who support us to do what we do 🙏

Remember team work makes the dream work!

06/10/2025

Hey wildling fam!

Look at this ridiculous that is our Dave.

Dave come to us about 6 months ago now, he was dumped with a mate, had a broken wing was fairly underweight.

We were able to rescue Dave, but, his mate was lost.

We got Dave back to health unfortunately his wing had already healed by the time we got him, but, it doesn't faze him at all now.

Dave's favorite past time is to come into the house and try screaming at us, muscoivies dont make a noise so he ends up just hissing instead.

Dumping poutry such as roosters, chickens and ducks like Dave is prevalent especially during molt when chickens stop laying, when roosters start crowing, or when Ducks like Dave are no longer cute, but, now messy and overbearing, they suffer greatly, as most cant fly, and already relied on humans for food thus dont know how to forage enough to sustain themselves.

As for ducks, if they bond with wild ducks it creates issues with fertility and creates a breed that is not conclusive to their survival.

As a result rescues such as Chicken Rehab & Rehoming ChCh and ourselves are out picking up these dumped animals to give them a second chance.

If you find any dumped ducks, give us a call.

For chickens/roosters either ourselves or chicken Rehab can help.

As for Dave, he is one of about 10 special needs we have here ranging from physical such as wings, to neurological issues, even a couple with emotional issues due to trauma.

If you have a special needs animal needing to be rehomed and/or care we do take them in. We don't have a bias on species please don't dump them like Dave.

Remember team work makes the dream work!

06/10/2025

Hey wildling fam.

Poor rasputin the beautiful swan we picked up yesterday had been to the vet today and unfortunately the prognosis wasn't good.

He had a broken joint, and his main wing bone had disintegrated with infection and trauma due to being left for so long.

Whist we looked at other options such as amputation, unfortunately the decision was made through severe case of bumble foot, which causes infection inflammation and pain in the foot. With such a big bird and his not being able to fly and injured it was a breeding ground for all sorts of nasties, which would only continue to get worse.

We would and do take in special needs/disabled if needed, pts isnt something anyone wants to do, but, the only kind thing to do for this beautiful creature was to pts.

This is why hunting for sport is such a barbaric unethical practice, if hurting things and leaving them to suffer is anyones idea of a good time we need to start questioning them as a person.

We need to understand the level of damage our recreational past times actually do.

If you find any wildlife in need of help please get in touch, thankyou to rasputin finders who didn't give up and kept trying to find someone to help, then finally finding us. You saved him from a horrific passing and instead he was able to have some dignity in his final moments.

Also thankyou to Animal Justice Party Aotearoa NZ Jess Sullivan and animal and bird hospital for supporting us in catching and then treating this beautiful boy.

Rip rasputin

Remember team work makes the dream work.

05/10/2025

Here is a small bit about the beautiful swan we have.

He will be taken in for treatment and rehabbed here at the land ark. (Lil Quacks)
It is most likely he won't be returned to the wild 😢

Hunting is not sport it is socially acceptable animal abuse end of.

If anyone wants to donate to his care and recovery our account details are;
Renee MCAULIFFE
12-3164-0322659-01 ref swan, or our give a lil page is in our bio.

Again thankyou Animal Justice Party Aotearoa NZ Jess Sullivan for helping us again with a swan and Chris Lynch for shining a light on this.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

05/10/2025

Hey wildling fam!

Yesterday we have had 5 ducklings come in, today was all about this swan.

This beautiful boy was found with a bullet wound, we were expecting him to be a bit harder to catch, but, with our friends at animal justice party, and of course Jess Sullivan as well as some Pegasus local heros we were able to catch him quickly we are now going to get him assessed and see what we can do to help him.

We will have some videos of the capture to come, for now though, we want to highlight this is the result of aparent having a bit of fun hunting.

This poor bird suffered for weeks with this a bullet through the wing and back in what is apparently a bit of fun.

This is just a juvenile and it could be his life cut short because of some ridiculous idea hunting is a sport.

This isn't a sport it's a barbaric practice that does nothing but destroy wildlife.

We have videos of the capture to come but for now we have a lot of work to do.

Remember team work makes the dream work!

03/10/2025

Hey wildling fam!

Just a reminder we absolutely do take care of all species, not just ducklings, anything from wild to domestic and some livestock as well.

Also we now have an amazing person who has offered to be our taxi service!

We are one of the only groups who will go out to catch injured, or, sick wildlife and will do that in chch and surrounding, for example tomorrow going out to find a broken wing swan today it is a parrie with a injured leg, a few weeks ago it was some lambs, now with our wee taxi service providing support from outside chch.
we will be able to help from chch to Timaru covering wider areas, which is very exciting!

We are very blessed to be able to do this and thank our volunteer who will be taxing a bit further out for us!

Remember team work makes the dream work!

03/10/2025

03/10/2025

Hey wildling fam!

We got a few more ducklings in today one was found without its mother this morning, and another 4 were picked up at the vet.

We have seen some really worrying posts lately about these guys it was a bit upsetting see and hear about.

These particular Ducks are wild, that means they shouldn't be tamed as pets. We have said this more than a few times and will keep saying it, please don't try to tame it.

More than once now we have heard of people wanting to take them on 'road trips' or have them ride in the car.

It may seem like a bit of a novelty for some people, but, they aren't a domestic pet such as a dog.

To even consider such activities with a wild animal is the first clue you need to surrender it.

We are also hearing of people setting them up with a big bowl of water, a heater, and what ever food they have on hand, or what google will tell them, this also is not good for ducklings. you may see some rescues let ducklings go for a swim and see them out with mum in water so you would be forgiven in thinking the first thing they need is a bath, but, they don't need water for swimming at all, ducklings lack the water proofing on their bodies until they have their feathers come through only mum can provide, a heater in the room will not keep them warm they need a brooder lamp or heatplate.

Please if you find any animal put it in a box with either a hot water bottle or a plastic bottle filled with hot water, don't give food nor give them a bath, just contact a wildlife rescue.

Please when you save a life make sure your saving it to be able to have a good life.

Remember teamwork makes the dream work!

02/10/2025

Hey wildling fam!

So we have an update to Jess's duck story.

If you remember she had been advocating to have these very dangerous grates covered, for two years, as a result of them not being covered we had witnessed a horrific tragedy with some beautiful wildlife. Finding that actually about 400 a season succumb to these horrible drains.

Well today we had a phone call from Jess to say the grate has been covered!!!!

Here is Jess showing us what one person can achieve when they don't give up on what is right.

These grates are a permanent fixture, are very high and will stop any wildlife from falling in.

This is a game changer for the beautiful ducks and ducklings it gives them a better chance out there.

Jess we have said it before and we will again it is always a pleasure and an honor to work with you, we are so so proud of your accomplishments and absolutely love your heart your definitely an inspiration to us all!

Remember team work makes the dream work!

01/10/2025

Hey wildling fam!

This is the tragic story of Jess's duck...

Jess is an extraordinary human, she sometimes helps us catch larger water fowl, let's us know when someone may have a wildling in need.

she advocated for a couple of years now for the council to change storm water and creek grates so ducks won't fall into them. But, more about Jess's fight later, and how you can help; this is the tradgic story of why Jess is fighting so hard and why we all should care as much as Jess does.

Today between picking up ducklings we got a phone call from Jess telling us about a duck stuck in a storm water drain. We must hurry she said this was a dire situation, we rushed straight over.

Jess's duck had a family, her babies went through this grate where the currents are so so fast they couldn't be stopped.

This beautiful mother was seen inside the drain on Monday with her darling and her babies, no one said anything, they may have been there for a day, or, days.

It's now Wednesday, and she is now alone, in the dark. too late for her babies and her beloved 😭

She was clinging on to life, alive, but, absolutely exhausted.

Jess found her today and found out about her story. she tried all she could to get through the grate, but she was too big, a smaller woman walked passed and said she will try, she fitted just fine, but, the exhausted widowed mother duck was scared and quickly swam away into the darkness.

That was the last time Jess's duck would be seen. Taken away via the current.

Jess rung us and we sped over to her, there was a man hole we helped Jess down, Jess was scared, but, determined.

Even a torch didn't light the blackness, not a lack of light, it was a lack of life.

Jess left some food for the very hungry exhausted grieving mother, and we hope that maybe she has found her way back again.

If she does she will be one of very few lucky ducks. More often the only thing heard, or, seen via the community is the cries from mother ducks down those drains at night.......

Talking to Jess about this heartbreaking situation we come to learn the average of duck/ducklings deaths is at 400 per season to storm water drains.

Jess has been fighting for council to change these grates and after a couple of years has been assured they are changing them as of this coming Friday, but, it was too late for this family.

This is why it's so so important to check! it takes less than five minutes just to pop your head around and look.

If you see anything in there please please get in touch with us straight away, don't wait and don't leave them there, it's just a five minute pH call that can save some lives.

This also would be a good time to talk about the dangers of these grates and any grates on storm water drains, tell people the dangers, repeat the stats 400 on average per season, PER SEASON! Push the council to change these to something safer, our wildllife and Jess is counting on us!

As a personal note, Jess you are phenomenal a human being and one of our biggest assets here in the wildling fam your an absolute superstar!

Remember team work makes the dream work!